Fame Confederate Monument

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Confederate Monument, Salisbury NC

Fame Confederate Monument
Salisbury
View complete article and references at Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/commland/monument/67

Description: A bronze statue of the muse Fame supports a defeated and dying soldier who clutches his gun; Fame, a winged figure dressed in robes and wearing a laurel wreath atop her head, holds a second wreath high into the air as if to place it on the soldier. The statue stands on a pink granite pedestal. From the bottom of the pedestal to the top of the bronze grouping, the monument measures almost 23 feet.


The United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) chapter decided on the statue in 1901. The completed statue arrived in Salisbury in 1905, but the land that the monument sits on wasn't deeded to the UDC until 1908 by the Salisbury Board of Aldermen and Mayor.


Images:
Contemporary view |
View from the intersection of West Innes and Church Streets |
Rear view |
Front inscription |
Left inscription |
Right inscription |
The muse and the soldier |
With St. John's Lutheran Church in the background


Inscription:
Southeast (front) base:

IN MEMORY OF /
ROWAN'S /
CONFEDERATE SOLDIERS /
THAT THEIR HEROIC DEEDS /
SUBLIME SELF-SACRIFICE /
AND UNDYING DEVOTION /
TO DUTY AND COUNTRY /
MAY NEVER BE FORGOTTEN /
1861-1865


Northeast (right) base:
THEY GAVE THEIR /
LIVES AND THEIR FORTUNES FOR /
CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY /
AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY /
IN OBEDIENCE TO THE TEACHINGS OF THE /
FATHERS WHO FRAMED /
THE CONSTITUTION /
AND ESTABLISHED THE /
UNION OF THESE STATES


Southwest (left) base:
SOLDIERS OF THE /
CONFEDERACY /
FAME HAS GIVEN YOU /
AN IMPERISHABLE CROWN /
HISTORY WILL RECORD /
YOUR DARING VALOR /
NOBLE SUFFERINGS AND /
MATCHLESS ACHIEVEMENTS /
TO THE HONOR AND /
GLORY OF OUR LAND


Northwest (back) base:
DEO VINDICE / R.I.P.


Dedication date: 5/10/1909

Creator: Johnpaul Harris, Sculptor
Mike Roig, Sculptor

Materials & Techniques: Bronze statue, pink granite base.

Sponsor: Robert F. Hoke Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy

Cost: $11,500 total ($10,000 for the bronze grouping, $1,500 for the granite base)

Unveiling & Dedication: Frances C. Fisher Tiernan, a Salisbury native, writer and novelist, and daughter of Col. Charles Fisher, composed a poem for the unveiling.

Post dedication use: It has been suggested that the monument be moved, as more than one car has run into the granite base. It was restored in 1991 by the Hoke Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC). The repairs cost $14,000 and were completed by Karkadoulias Bronze Art Co. in Cincinnati. The UDC also celebrated the monument's centennial on May 9, 2009. The monument is occasionally used by the Hoke chapter of the UDC to commemorate specific Confederate soldiers by placing wreaths at the monument.

Subject notes: The dying soldier in the bronze grouping was modeled from an 1861 photograph of Confederate Lt. Henry Howe Cook of Franklin, Tennessee.

Location: Located at the intersection of West Innes and Church Streets, facing southeast. Access is limited due to traffic.

City: Salisbury

County: Rowan

Subjects: Civil War

Latitude: 
35.66841
Longitude: 
-80.47109
Subjects: 
Monuments
Places
Authors: 
Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina
Origin - location: 
Salisbury
Rowan County
From: 
Commemorative Landscapes of NC, University of North Carolina Chapel Hill.

11 July 2014 | Commemorative Landscapes of North Carolina

Comments

Submitted by George M Jones (not verified) on Tue, 06/04/2019 - 19:41

Folks, when you read the inscription quoted by "Chuck" on May 24, 2019, understand that the "constitutional liberty" is not a reference to any liberty granted by the US Constitution rather it refers to the Constitution of the Confederate States of America which enshrined the institution of Slavery and declared black persons naturally inferior to white. So, there is a clear and forthright connection between the erection of this statue to racism in its ugliest form - chattel slavery. There can be no justification for this statue to remain in its setting; it should be moved to a Confederate cemetery.

Also, know that the "Fathers" in the inscription are not the "Founding Fathers" of the American Republic, the USA; rather, it is a reference to those who led the Secession and formed the CSA.

The soldiers of the CSA, as brave and gallant as they were, fought for a shameful cause in an unnecessary conflict. They gave their lives, their limbs, and their futures to defend the establishment of a nation based upon racial inequality and chattel slavery. [See "The Cornerstone Address" by Alexander Stephens, VP of CSA,]

Submitted by Chuck (not verified) on Fri, 05/24/2019 - 20:05

Dont move Fame it's over 100 years old true artwork. DOTR
Regards

Submitted by keubank on Fri, 05/24/2019 - 17:19

Thank you for contacting us with your comment. You may be interested in learning more North Carolina monuments at this website: http://ncmonuments.ncdcr.gov/

Best, 
Kelly Eubank, Government and Heritage Library

Submitted by Debbie Redington (not verified) on Fri, 05/24/2019 - 00:21

Funny, i see nothing in the inscriptions that gives any hint or notion of racism . There is no distinction made in white soldiers or black soldiers, or slavery being mentioned as the reason for the war. There is no mention here of oppression as a goal. Why remove it for any reason? It is a beautiful piece of art.

Submitted by Chuck (not verified) on Fri, 05/24/2019 - 20:08

THEY GAVE THEIR /
LIVES AND THEIR FORTUNES FOR /
CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTY /
AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY /
IN OBEDIENCE TO THE TEACHINGS OF THE /
FATHERS WHO FRAMED /
THE CONSTITUTION /
AND ESTABLISHED THE /
UNION OF THESE STATES

Submitted by George M Jones (not verified) on Tue, 06/04/2019 - 11:06

This inscription needs some explanation. One can not read it with the view that the inscription refers to the "constitutionally liberty" enshrined in the US Constitution nor that the "Fathers" are those associated with the founding of the United States of America following the Revolutionary War.

The "constitutional liberties" and "state sovereignty" alluded to are those specified in the Constitution of the Confederate States of America while the "Fathers" referenced are those leaders that formed and established the government of the Confederacy. Thus there is a clear connection to the issue of racial subordination as the Constitution of the CSA firmly established slavery as a state-sanctioned institution: Art. 1, Sec 9.4 reads "No bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law denying or impairing the right of property in negro slaves shall be passed." Other relevant sections of the CSA Constitution: Article 1, Sections 9.1, 9.2 and Article 4, Sections 2.1, 3.3.

The CSA "founding fathers" were equally supportive of slavery and led the rebellion against the Federal government of the USA specifically over the issue of slavery and its expansion as seen in the various declarations of the cause of secession published by the various Southern states.

So, is there a connection to slavery and racial inequality, "YES," just as there is a connection to rebellion and disunion.

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